Book Review: City of Bones by Cassandra Clare

City of Bones

Cassandra Clare

485 Pages

Published March 27, 2007

When fifteen-year-old Clary Fray heads out to the Pandemonium Club in New York City, she hardly expects to witness a murder -- much less a murder committed by three teenagers covered with strange tattoos and brandishing bizarre weapons. Then the body disappears into thin air. It's hard to call the police when the murderers are invisible to everyone else and when there is nothing -- not even a smear of blood -- to show that a boy has died. Or was he a boy?
This is Clary's first meeting with the Shadowhunters, warriors dedicated to ridding the earth of demons. It's also her first encounter with Jace, a Shadowhunter who looks a little like an angel and acts a lot like a jerk. Within twenty-four hours Clary is pulled into Jace's world with a vengeance, when her mother disappears and Clary herself is attacked by a demon. But why would demons be interested in ordinary mundanes like Clary and her mother? And how did Clary suddenly get the Sight? The Shadowhunters would like to know. . . . 
Exotic and gritty, exhilarating and utterly gripping, Cassandra Clare's ferociously entertaining fantasy takes readers on a wild ride that they will never want to end.

 City of Bones was a book I was really looking forward to digging into. So many people are fans of The Immortal Instruments series, my husband included, and I thought I'd fall head over heels in love with these books as well. While Clare managed to weave an interesting story, it didn't grip me in the way that I had hoped. Maybe my expectations were just too high.

We're introduced to Clary and Simon, two best friends going to a party club together one night, when Clary sees some pretty alarming sights that no one else can see. Immediately we are thrust into the world of the shadowhunters, and I appreciated getting to the action straight away. The first half of the book was smooth sailing for me, and the book was everything I could have hoped for. Mythical creatures, suspense and mystery. This book was perfect!

Then things just stopped adding up for me. Jace was, as many people have already pointed out, an asshole, but I had tried to ignore that. There was a point in the story that I began hating him, when he betrayed everything he stood for at the drop of a hat. Umm, Jace, that isn't cool. Don't you know better?

Another plot twist, involving my favorite couple in the story... well it took away any possible romance. These two things are what I think ruined the story for me, though I'm sure many people didn't mind these plot twists. I've been told to stick it out and hold on, so that I will do. Hopefully these things get resolved and Jace grows as a person. If he can do that, well this might be a great series afterall.